NOTES to the SECOND VOLUME.

NOTES.

NOTE I.

PAGE 4 (177); line
2.--"And wondrous length and strength of arm."

The people of the neighbourhood of
Loch Ketterine, in order to prove the extraordinary length of their Hero's arm,
tell you that "he could garter his Tartan Stockings below the knee when
standing upright." According to their account he was a tremendous
Swordsman; after having sought all occasions of proving his prowess, he was

never
conquered but once, and this not till he was an Old Man.

NOTE II.

PAGE 11
(185).--_The solitary Reaper_. This Poem was suggested by a beautiful
sentence in a MS Tour in Scotland
written by a Friend, the last line being taken from it _verbatim_.

NOTE III.

PAGE 65 (239).--THE
BLIND HIGHLAND BOY. The incident upon
which this Poem is founded was related to me by an eye witness.

NOTE IV.

PAGE 106 (280);
line 10.--"Seen the Seven Whistlers, &c." Both these superstitions
are prevalent in the midland Counties of England: that of "Gabriel's
Hounds" appears to be very general over Europe;
being the same as the one upon which the German Poet, Burger, has founded his
Ballad of the Wild Huntsman.

NOTE V.

PAGE 128
(302).--_Song, at the Feast of Brougham Castle_. Henry Lord Clifford,
&c. &c., who is the subject of this Poem, was the son of John, Lord
Clifford, who was slain at Towton Field, which John, Lord Clifford, as is known
to the Reader of English History, was the person who after the battle of
Wakefield slew, in the pursuit, the young Earl of Rutland, Son of the Duke of
York who had fallen in the battle, "in part of revenge" (say the
Authors of the History of Cumberland and Westmorland); "for the Earl's
Father had slain his." A deed which worthily blemished the author (saith
Speed); But who, as he adds, "dare promise any thing temperate of himself
in the heat of martial fury? chiefly, when it was
resolved not to leave any branch of the York
line standing; for so one maketh this Lord to speak." This, no doubt, I
would observe by the bye, was an action sufficiently in the vindictive spirit
of the times, and yet not altogether so bad as represented; for the Earl was no
child, as some writers would have him, but able to bear arms, being sixteen or seventeen
years of age, as is evident from this (say the Memoirs of

the Countess of Pembroke, who was
laudably anxious to wipe away, as far as could be, this stigma from the
illustrious name to which she was born); that he was the next Child to King
Edward the Fourth, which his mother had by Richard Duke of York, and that King
was then eighteen years of age: and for the small distance betwixt her Children,
see Austin Vincent in his book of Nobility, page 622, where he writes of them
all. It may further be observed, that Lord Clifford, who was then himself only
twenty-five years of age, had been a leading Man and Commander, two or three
years together in the Army of Lancaster, before this time; and, therefore,
would be less likely to think that the Earl of Rutland might be entitled to mercy
from his youth.--But, independent of this act, at best a cruel and savage one,
the Family of Clifford had done enough to draw upon them the vehement hatred of
the House of York: so that after the Battle of Towton there was no hope for
them but in flight and concealment. Henry, the subject of the Poem, was deprived
of his estate and honours during the space of twenty-four years; all which time
he lived as a shepherd in Yorkshire, or in Cumberland, where the estate of his
Father-in-law (Sir Lancelot Threlkeld) lay. He was restored to his estate and
honours in the first year of Henry the Seventh. It is recorded that, "when
called to parliament, he behaved nobly and wisely; but otherwise came seldom to
London or the Court; and rather delighted to live in the country, where he
repaired several of his Castles, which had gone to decay during the late
troubles." Thus far is chiefly collected from Nicholson and Burn; and I
can add, from my own knowledge, that there is a tradition current in the
village of

Threlkeld and its neighbourhood, his
principal retreat, that, in the course of his shepherd life, he had acquired
great astronomical knowledge. I cannot conclude this note without adding a word
upon the subject of those numerous and noble feudal Edifices, spoken of in the
Poem, the ruins of some of which are, at this day, so great anornament to that
interesting country. The Cliffords had always been distinguished for an
honorable pride in these Castles; and we have seen that after the wars of York
and Lancaster they were rebuilt; in the civil Wars of Charles the First, they
were again laid waste, and again restored almost to their former magnificence
by the celebrated Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, &c. &c. Not
more than 25 years after this was done, when the Estates of Clifford had passed
into the family of Tufton, three of these Castles, namely Brough, Brougham, and
Pendragon, were demolished, and the timber and other materials sold by Thomas
Earl of Thanet. We will hope that, when this order was issued, the Earl had not
consulted the text of Isaiah, 58th Chap. 12th Verse, to which the inscription
placed over the gate of Pendragon Castle, by the Countess of Pembroke (I
believe his Grandmother) at the time she repaired that structure, refers the
reader. "_And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places;
thou shalt raise up the foundations of many
generations, andthou shalt be called the repairer of the breach_, _the restorer
of paths to dwell in_." The Earl of Thanet, the present possessor of the
Estates, with a due respect for the memory of his ancestors, and a proper sense
of the value and beauty of these remains of antiquity, has (I am told) given
orders that they shall be preserved from all depredations.

NOTE VI.

PAGE 130 (304);
line 2.--"Earth helped him with the cry of blood."

This line is from The Battle of
Bosworth Field by Sir John Beaumont (Brother to the Dramatist), whose poems are
written with so much spirit, elegance, and harmony, that it is supposed, as the
Book is very scarce, a new edition of it would be acceptable to Scholars and Men
of taste, and, accordingly, it is in contemplation to give one.

NOTE VII.

PAGE 135 (309);
line 15.--

"And both the undying Fish that swim

Through Bowscale-Tarn," &c.

It is imagined by the people of the
Country that there are two immortal Fish, Inhabitants of this Tarn,
which lies in the mountains not far from Threlkeld.--Blencathara, mentioned
before, is the old and proper name of the mountain vulgarly called Saddle-back.

NOTE VIII.

PAGE 136 (310);
lines 17 and 18.--

"Armour rusting in his Halls

On the blood of Clifford calls."

The martial character of the
Cliffords is well known to the readers of English History; but it may not be
improper here to say, by way of comment on these lines and what follows, that,
besides several others who perished in the same manner, the four immediate Progenitors
of the person in whose hearing this is supposed to be spoken, all died in the
Field.